Chloe has an announcement…

We had our ultrasound this morning and everything looked great.  The ultrasound tech was pretty sure within the first 10 seconds that we were having a boy and confirmed it several times as we went along.  I think I was just as amazed by this ultrasound as I was by Chloe Mae’s.  We saw his heart, kidneys and lungs along with all the tiny digits of his fingers and the long bones of his legs.  Just amazing!!  His measurements were all right on and they estimate his weight at 8 oz. right now.

I’m also doing great and have been labeled, again, as ‘boring’ by my doctor.  I’ll take it!!  My weight gain is on track, my blood pressure is good and I’m measuring the exact size I should be.

Now on to garage sales, so we  can stock up on everything our little man might need!!

Blame it on pregnancy?? I wish!!

Sometimes I wish that my constant worrying and crazy need to control and plan everything possible was pregnancy related.  I don’t think it is.  And I should say, my husband is a saint.  He doesn’t just deal with a crazy wife while I’m pregnant – he deals with it pretty much all the time.  There are a lot more unknowns while I’m pregnant though, which doesn’t work well with my need to control everything.  This means the crazy comes out in full force!

Last Saturday, Chloe Mae went to the library with Nanna and Dudad while DaddyMort and I prettied ourselves up to go out to lunch with the family.  (This can also be read as: DaddyMort and I had an uninterrupted hour of time together!!)  During this time, I was asking about his available vacation time this year to try to figure out how much time he’ll be able to take off when BabyD arrives in the fall.  It started out as an innocent, non-crazy, conversation.  Since I wasn’t being interrupted by a very adorable almost-two-year-old, things quickly took a turn as I started coming up with contingency plans for if BabyD arrives on Monday vs. Thursday or Wednesday vs. Saturday.  DaddyMort let me keep talking, but I soon figured out based on the looks he was giving me and the “uh-huh’s” that I had crossed the line from casually wondering about vacation time to being a crazy control freak.  I backed down a little, but not without trying to justify my craziness first 🙂  

Now today, I’m in a tizzy over tomorrow’s ultrasound.  When it was first scheduled, I tried to put it out of my mind, because it was 4 weeks away and I knew it would take forever to get here if I was constantly thinking about it.  Then a couple weeks ago I found out I might have to report to jury duty today, which would jeopardize tomorrow’s scheduled ultrasound.  Again, I was trying not to think about it.  At 5:03PM last night I called and found out I didn’t have to report to jury duty, so I was in the clear.  I was finally excited for Wednesday morning!!  I told a pregnant friend (who’s also our sitter) when I picked Chloe up.  Then we were excited together.  I told my husband and we were excited together.  I called my mom to confirm plans for her to watch Chloe Wednesday morning while we’re at the appointment.  And you guessed it – we were excited together!!

For 10 hours I was excited.  Then at about 3AM I got up for one of my many nightly trips to the restroom.  I laid in bed, unable to fall back asleep after that and started worrying.  What if we get to the ultrasound and something’s wrong?  I have no reason to think anything’s wrong – but I have to be in a rational state of mind for that to make a difference.  I didn’t feel Chloe Mae move until 18.5 weeks.  I’ll be 18 weeks tomorrow, so we’re not behind on that one.  I had a wonderfully easy, healthy pregnancy last time, so there’s no reason to think this one will be any different.  

I can’t help it though.  I am worried.  That’s just who I am – as a person and a mom.  Hopefully by about 8:05 tomorrow morning we will have at least seen BabyD and heard his/her heartbeat.  And soon after that, I hope all of my other (current) worries will be gone and BabyD will be given a clean bill of health.  Then on to the next set of worries and craziness!!

*This is me being rational and assuming that everything will be fine with our little one:  I can’t keep a secret, so we will be sharing BabyD’s gender when we find out.  Stay tuned tomorrow for the big announcement!! 

Breakfast Conversations

*Apparently I’m doing a breakfast theme this week. I’ll see if I can keep it up all week 🙂

I’ve been receiving weekly emails from Babycenter about Chloe’s development since I was about 10 weeks pregnant with her. Within the last couple weeks, one of the updates said that by now she should be speaking about 20 words. This seemed like a low number to me* – I’m pretty sure Chloe Mae can say 20 words just naming foods.

This morning at breakfast it seemed like Chloe was just chattering away and I decided to keep track of what she was saying. The following is what she said and (my interpretation.)

–Bye-bye daddy. Work. Daddy, door close! (Bye daddy! Have a great day at work…. Hey! Daddy – you didn’t close the door all the way!)
–Night-night Haven. Night-night Julia. Bonk head. Door close. *nods head with a very serious look on her face.* (Mom, do you remember last night when I said good night to Haven and Julia? Then, when we got upstairs, I ran down the dark hallway to my bedroom and hit my head on the door because it was closed. Yeah, that totally happened.)
–Chloe toast. Mama toast. Chloe smoothie. Mama smoothie. Smoothie – juice, milk, yogurt, fruit. (Hey mom! We both have toast and smoothies for breakfast! Our smoothies have juice, milk, yogurt and fruit in them.)
–Owie toe. Naked! *unzips pajamas* Diaper!  MamaMort: Chloe, you need to leave your pajamas on until you’re done eating please.  Zip up. *looks at me very seriously while starting to zip them back up* Zip up. (I just hit my toe on my chair. I think the best solution is to take my pajamas off and be naked. Look – I unzipped them all the way to my diaper! MamaMort chimes in… Ok, I’ll zip them up. See mom – as long as you’re watching, I’m totally zipping them up!)
–All done mama!! (That one’s easy enough…)
–No no mama. Buckle. Oops! Break. Help please! (Even though I told you I was done, insinuating that I wanted out of my highchair, you should have magically left the buckle buckled. *Chloe starts working on re-buckling it and a piece of it came apart* Mama, can you help me fix it?)

A year ago Chloe said, “og” for dog and had a few signs, but that was all for communication. Today, she’s putting together word combinations, telling stories from things that happened in the past, ‘reading’ us her favorite books, singing songs and making her wishes pretty well known. By my count, Chloe Mae used over 30 different words just at breakfast today. We barely skimmed the surface of her knowledge of food, clothing and the people in her life. We didn’t have any discussions involving animals, her favorite books, colors or places we might go. Yet, my little chatterbox was talking up a storm about all kinds of things, unprompted by me. Seriously amazing!!

*Now, I know that every child develops differently and it’s possible that Chloe is behind in another area of development, but just humor me and let a Mama brag!!

Chloe’s Favorite Breakfast

This is the best pancake recipe we’ve found, and Chloe’s favorite breakfast.  (I kinda like it too.  DaddyMort adds mini chocolate chips for Chloe Mae and I and we eat them with cool whip.  Delish!!)  This morning, Chloe, DaddyMort and I each had 2 pancakes – and, no, we didn’t make hers any smaller.  I feel like these pancakes are a pretty healthy choice – with whole wheat flour and very little sugar, so I’m okay with this.

Ingredients 

*Right now, we’re making a 1/3 batch of these and still have a couple leftover.

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups buttermilk
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup butter, melted

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together buttermilk, milk, eggs and melted butter. Keep the two mixtures separate until you are ready to cook.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. You can flick water across the surface and if it beads up and sizzles, it’s ready!
3. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture, using a wooden spoon or fork to blend. Stir until it’s just blended together. Do not over stir! Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/2 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

The pancakes are a wee bit messy, but so worth it!!

Windowsill, Bathroom … Whatever Works!

*Despite the name, this post is not disgusting!

As a kid, when we’d gather up at Grammie and Papa’s house, my cousin Bethany and I would inevitably end up holing ourselves up in the bathroom until an adult would knock on the door and remind us that bathrooms are not gathering places.  Ridiculous, we thought!  There were 2 other toilets in my grandparent’s house if people really needed to go, but not anywhere else that our brothers would just leave us alone! 

I think Chloe and Julia may have found their spot at Nanna and Dudad’s house:

Well, for now at least.  It’s not as spacious or quite as private as the bathroom Bethany and I used, and pretty soon their cute little butts might not fit, but this windowsill on the landing makes the perfect spot for these girls to gather and chit-chat right now.  They had a sleepover on Friday night and apparently spent most of the evening sitting here, eating Cheerios and talking about the woes of toddler-hood!

March of Dimes

In about a month, we’ll be walking in the March of Dimes event in Des Moines.  We’ve joined “Team Kamps ^3.”  The Kamps triplet’s mom is a cousin of Aaron’s.  My mom delivered 2 premature babies and was on bedrest with me for several months.  If that isn’t enough, I’m pregnant, so having healthy babies is important to me 🙂

If you want to donate to my personal fundraising goal to help Team Kamps ^3, click here!